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Welcome to the Veenstra, DeKruyter, Buist and Workman family genealogy pages. This website was created to share the facts, events, photos and stories with our family members and other interested researchers.

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Feel free to copy any documents or photos from this site but remember that another person’s research should not be considered a credible source until it has been properly vetted. This is also true for the research shown here; I am a researcher – I am not a source! Even though I have a good number of sourced facts, events and stories, there are still many more that need more research and proper sourcing. If you post something from here online, please give proper attribution.

Current file statistics:

3,928 Individuals, 1,577 Families, 5,785 Media Records, 11,184 Facts, 1,897 Source Records, 16,328 Source Citations.

Our Histories


Johannes de Kruiter - The Immigrant Journey to Alamosa, Colorado

Note: Transcribed from The Gerrit J. De Kruyter Family – Tracing our History by Carolyn DeKruyter. Transcribed by Craig Veenstra, 2024

The following vivid account of the journey of more than two hundred Dutch immigrants to Alamosa, Colorado, was written by Jan Van Boven, who accompanied the group to America. It appeared in Volume II (pp. 304-305) of Dutch Immigrant Memoirs and Related Writings by Henry S. Lucas, published in 1955 by Van Gorcum & Company of Assen, the Netherlands. Although most of Lucas’s work appeared in English, certain contributions appeared in Dutch, as is the following account. This translation is provided through the courtesy of Heritage Hall, Calvin College.

On Sunday, November 12, 1922, it will be thirty years ago That a Dutch colony of two hundred souls left Amsterdam with their destination being the San Luis Valley, Colorado, North America. It was on the twelfth of November, 1892, on a Saturday, at twelve o’clock noon, that the steamship Dubbledam, of the Holland American Line, left Amsterdam with a large colony of two hundred Netherlanders from all provinces of the Netherlands.

During the first four days we had favorable weather, al-though already in the English Channel many were suffering from sea sickness. But on the fifth day, when we were on the wide ocean, we were struck by a violent storm from the West; because of it the steamship made very little progress. This storm lasted three or four days; at night it was so violent that some of the passengers and members of the crew suffered injuries. One of the passengers, Mrs. de Kruyter, was thrown from one side of the ship to the other side, against a chair, so forcefully that the doctor had to sew shut a head wound.

Plates, cups, and other tableware were often smashed. Once, a high wave passed over the ship, washing a small boy from side of the boat to the other, and truly he would have gone into the ocean, were it not for the rail that kept him on deck.

How the Dubbledam struggled through the raging Atlantic ocean! We often stood watching this struggle while the prow lifted itself and in the next moment made a plunge to the depths. Everything around us was seething and boiling foam, like that in a gigantic pot, with furious turmoil which, in the fury of its strength beat and crashed against the sides of the Dubbledam so that hearing and sight were lost. The machinery strained with all its strength. Thick clouds of smoke billowed out the chimney like that out of a crater, proving that all the hands below deck were doing their best in order to proceed. The rigging clattered against the masts. To and fro we heard the sea birds which followed our ship, producing a fearful screaming, as if they too, being afraid, were seeking shelter from the fury of the storm.

The seamen, dressed in oil skins, southwesters, and high boots, silently did their duty.

Above the roaring of the wind and the foaming of the water we heard unceasingly the deafening noise of the propeller, whenever it came above water.

When we neared the banks of Newfoundland, the storm subsided. What a change when there is quiet after the storm! During the storm the dining rooms and lounges were nearly abandoned, but now everyone was happy and cheerful and one saw the colonists sitting in groups all over.

We met several ships with whom we exchanged signals. In those days there was not yet a wireless telegraph, so that all information was transmitted, during the day with flags, and during the night with lights.

In that time sailing ships were by no means rare. On a Sunday afternoon a beautiful frigate ship with full sails went past us, only a short distance away. Such a graceful and majestic rig of a sail ship that ever plowed through the seas is beyond description. On the 25th of November, 1892, on a Saturday noon, we arrived in New York. The journey had lasted exactly fourteen days. The train trip from Hoboken to the San Luis Valley, Colorado lasted four days and three nights. With a special train, consisting of a number of coaches, for more than two hundred travelers, and some cars for the baggage, we departed from Hoboken on the Pennsylvania Railroad. At the stations of large towns, our train with the Dutch settlers naturally drew a great deal of attention, because it doesn’t happen every day that such a large number of immigrants passes through, all going to one place.

We remained at St. Louis for some time. There a meal was made ready for us in the hall of the station. There we also had to change trains, and in the evening we went farther with the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

The trip across Kansas, through the immense prairies was very monotonous. Wednesday morning we entered the state of Colorado. The condition of the soil changed perceptibly as we came close to the Rocky Mountains. The terrain became more and more rugged. The Rocky Mountains became higher and higher until we saw the really high Rocky Mountains in the distance. About noon we reached Pueblo, where we stayed a couple of hours.

From there we journeyed on the Denver and Rio Grand Railroad through the famous Royal Gorge to the San Luis Valley. On the way the old mother of D. Ballast from Leeuwarden became very sick. In the middle of the high mountains, at Salida, a doctor was fetched, although the journey had to continue. The old lady lived for a few days in the immigrant house, close by Alamosa, and then she died. She was the first one from the colony that was committed to a cold grave in the San Luis Valley. She had completed the long and tiresome trip in her latter days, only to die and be buried in a strange and oh so inhospitable place.

Wednesday evening we came to Alamosa. Some miles from there in a desolate, bare region, two large frame buildings were hastily raised up. There the settlers were brought and packed in on top of each other, like herring in a barrel, Only inadequate arrangements were encountered. There was an obvious lack of some necessities, since it was difficult to foresee the daily needs of such a large number of people. Besides, the people were disappointed, because the nice picture the Immigrant Society had pictured did not come true.

Throat disease and scarlet fever showed itself in the buildings and in a short time eleven children from various families died. Also, in another house, the oldest daughter of Mr. J. de Kruyter passed away.

Over the fraudulent, false hopes with which the colonists were enticed, we will not now digress. These we have already dealt with, at the time sharp enough—for some, too sharp. The settlement appeared to be a failure and the colonists, except for certain families, departed from this tract of land in Colorado to different states.

(Wilhelmina M. de Kruyter died of Rocky Mountain Fever in Colorado January 24, 1893 at age 14 years. Wilhelmina was a sister of Joe de Kruyter).

My Grampas

Excerpt from Veenstra Family History & Other Tidbits by Bernie Veenstra (1927-2020)

I remember very little of my grandfather on my mother's side. He died when I was six years old. I can still see him though, phlegmatic amongst his brood of chattering children, most of whom still lived at home, grating a hard cheese onto his bread, cheese that to me then smelled horribly rotten, though now I suspect I would eat it as avidly as he did. He was a farmer, and other smells I associate with him or with his house are those of the barn, of buttermilk from the churn in the "hookya", of kerosene lanterns, of new mown hay. When he died, his body was put on display in the bedroom adjacent to the kitchen. This was my first experience with death. To this day I can see the viewing line with me in it, sidling forward step by step, wail on wail, to say goodbye to Grampa. I closed my eyes and prayed that God would make him alive again so my mom would be happy once more. What a disappointment when I sneaked a confident one-eyed peak and he never even stirred. A first lesson in the fact that a faith much greater than a mustard seed isn't necessarily answered. He died at age 55 of peritonitis complicating a “twisted bowel”. I was much closer to my other Grampa, who played a significant part in my young life. My first recollections of him are in the village of Cutlerville where he lived after leaving his farm. Vaguely I recall Bobby, a grandson then living with his grandparents, left fatherless when Milo, Grampa's oldest son, had died prematurely. I recall first hearing there his long (to me) singsong prayers in Dutch, always ending with the same welcome phrase that anticipated a long drawn out "Amen." And I recall the story told me by my older brother that if you rested your head on your hand at the table, Grampa would for sure go out to the woodpile for a block of wood, and you would have to sit the rest of the meal resting your head on it. Somehow this held real terror for me; I don't know to this day if the story had any basis in fact. The Grampa I subsequently grew to love would never have been that cruel--I don't think.

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Discover Our Different Families

Veenstra -

Melle Sierds Veenstra (1838-1919)

Great (2x) grandfather Veenstra. c.1895

Buist -

Gerrit Jennes 'John' Buist (1844 - 1924)

Great (2x) grandfather Buist. c.1900.

de Kruijter -

Johannes de Kruijter (1821-1901)

Great (3x) grandfather de kruijter (DeKruyter).

Workman -

Jan 'John' Werkman (1841 - 1923)

Great (2x) grandfather Werkman (Workman).


We Move to Stroobos, 1884 to April, 1887

Excerpt from The Adventures of Harry M. Veenstra by Hermanus (Harry) Veenstra (1880-1977).

WE MOVE TO STROOBOS 1884 to April 1887

I was about four years old when our family moved to Stroobos, a village or town in the province of Groningen. (Stroobos freely translated would be Strawunch I was told.) We lived there about 3 years, and young as I was, I have a clear recollection of some of my childhood “ADVENTURES”.

I recall that our home was located on the bank of a canal which served the dual purpose of water transportation and drainage. Much of the Netherlands is below sea level, and the water at that time was collected in small ditches, pumped by the ubiquitous windmills into canals,. And by some method I do not know, emptied into the ocean.

Our canal was used mostly by barges drawn along the tow path by a horse, or by the owner, who lived aboard with his family. What freight was stored in the hold I do not know, except in that of the scavenger barge, which stopped periodically in front of our home.

Like probably all of our neighbors, we had a “privy” connected to the back of our home. Below the seat was a receptacle which was emptied when the scavenger made his periodic call. At that time, the farmers used that material on their fields for fertilizer. The barge owner performed this function free of charge; or may even have paid something for it.

Although this wide, deep canal was only a few feet from our front door, my mother told me when I asked her later in life, that she never worried, could recall no child ever having fallen in.


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We make every effort to properly document our research. If you have something you would like to add or comment on, please contact us. © Veenstra Genealogy and individual copyright holders. Edited and maintained by Craig H. Veenstra, 2024. All rights reserved. You are not authorized to add this page or any images from this page to Ancestry.com (or its subsidiaries) or any other fee-paying sites without expressed permission, and then only by including our copyright and a URL link to our web site.